Pete and Fran Gillam, a British couple living in the town of Bédar in southern Spain, have been confirmed dead in wildfires that swept across the region. Their daughter Danielle announced the confirmation after police verified that her parents did not survive The Guardian. They were among the first people formally identified as victims on Monday, as the death toll climbed to 13.

The Gillams lost contact with their daughter by text message while evacuating from Bédar, according to The Sun and Sky News. As of Sunday, 23 people were still unaccounted for. Before the confirmation, their daughter had posted on Facebook groups used by British people living in the area, asking for help. The Spanish news outlet Sur in English reported that specialists worked through Sunday trying to identify bodies recovered from the Los Gallardos fire.

Twelve bodies were found in the area where the fire was most intense, and the Gillams were among the first to be identified. The other confirmed dead include a Spanish man and his British wife, plus one person each from the US, France, and Belgium. Authorities also confirmed that a 93-year-old British woman who was hurt in the fire died in hospital, bringing the total to 13. Police said 10 formal missing-persons reports had been filed by Sunday, though Sky News had reported 23 people unaccounted for the day before. The difference shows how long it takes for official paperwork to catch up with people posting online.

Some of those who died were trapped in their cars on the road out of Bédar while trying to escape. The fire spread so fast it overtook the evacuation route. At least four more British victims are believed to have died in a burned-out Honda car with British steering wheel placement. In another case, a British man died in his car in Los Gallardos while trying to save his pets during the evacuation, according to what a friend told reporters. Because many bodies were severely burned, doctors cannot identify them by sight alone. Forensic experts in Madrid are using DNA samples taken from the remains and cheek swabs from the families of missing people—collected at the local government office—to figure out who died.

A different British couple was rescued during the same emergency. They were found badly burned and unconscious in a ravine near the fire—the news said they were visiting the area on holiday and may have been hiking when the fire caught them. Unlike the Gillams, who lived there long-term, this couple was visiting. They suffered burns on 40% of their bodies and were helicoptered to a hospital in a rescue that took about two hours, according to The Guardian. Two police officers involved in the rescue described what happened to Spain's national television. As of Sunday, the couple was still in intensive care.

The rescue operation's size shows how overwhelming the fire was. More than 1,400 people were evacuated from their homes, and more than 500 firefighters and emergency workers fought the blaze. On Sunday, the regional leader Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla said the fire was contained and under control, thanks to winds that calmed down on Saturday. He said the conditions before the fire—very dry ground, strong winds, and extreme heat linked to climate change—had turned the region into a "ticking timebomb," and he compared the burned-out landscape to a war zone.

Most of the people who died are British or Belgian, plus one Spanish person. This pattern reflects that Almería has many foreign residents and tourists living or vacationing in towns like Bédar. Because the area has both long-time residents like the Gillams and tourists caught in the middle of their holidays, identifying the dead has been complicated. Officials have had to match missing-persons posts on social media with official police reports, DNA records, and information from the British, Belgian, French, and American governments all at once. The fact that the number of confirmed deaths and the number of official missing-persons reports do not yet match earlier counts suggests the final death toll may change as forensic work continues in Madrid.